Tuesday, the onetime comic actor (who as of late has been doing more odd artsy projects that- with noted exception to his surprise cameo in Zombieland- have very few laughs in them) called in to The Howard Stern Show spent an hour talking to the King of all Media about a myriad of topics while promoting the release of Get Low on DVD.

During the extensive interview, Stern touched on Murray’s reclusiveness, his appearance to be a torture artist, and-most important to me and probably anyone reading this site- the fact that it is because of Bill Murray’s wicked case of the wet ass that there has not yet been any forward progress in the oft rumored production of Ghostbusters 3.

The following was transcribed (thanks to the swinging dicks at The Realm Toys for transcribing the interview) from the Tuesday February 22, 2011 phone interview that Bill Murray did with Howard Stern.

STERN: Is it true that there is a “Ghostbusters 3” and you’re the problem? You will not sign off on this? Do you know about this?

MURRAY: “Yeah, I guess I’m the problem. Before I was an asset and now I’m the problem. There’s a script somewhere over there. Over there there’s a script and I haven’t read it yet.”

STERN: Why haven’t you read it? Because you think it’s a bullshit idea? In other words, Ghostbusters had its time and you did a remarkable job with that, and you’ve moved on?

MURRAY: “There’s a little bit of that. You know, I only made one sequel, “Ghostbusters II,” and it didn’t end up the way it was presented. About five years after we did the first one, the clever agents got us all together in a room, and we really are funny together. I mean they are funny people – Harold and Danny and myself, and it was Ivan and maybe one or two other people. And we were just blindingly funny for about an hour or so. And the agents, there was just foam coming off of them. And so they had this pitch and Danny and Harold had already concocted some sort of story idea, and it was a story, it was a good story. I think I had even already read one or two that Danny rolled out before that, but this one was a good one. I said, “OK, we can do that one.” It was just kind of fun to have all of us together. I mean Moranis, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts. These people, they’re just sterling people to begin with.”

STERN: So how do you go back and really make another? Does Ivan want to make that film?

MURRAY: “Yeah, Ivan wants to make it and I owe him and he’s puzzled that I haven’t gotten to this one.”STERN: How long has it been sitting on your desk, this script for Ghostbusters?

MURRAY: “Well, it may not be on the desk; it’s over there somewhere. How long? I don’t know.”

STERN: So you’re never going to read it?

STERN SIDEKICK ROBIN QUIVERS: So you have no interest?

MURRAY: “Well, I’ll get to it. I gotta get to it. I feel badly. I got a message. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but it’s not the foremost thing in my mind right now, so I don’t think about it. You know what, the studio gets excited about it every 10 years or so or it seems like, and they read it. Because what they’d really like to do is recreate the franchise, you know? I remember once upon a time it was going to be, “And the new Ghostbusters will be Chris Rock, Chris Farley and Chris Crane or Kris Kringle.” Or someone. They had it together.”

STERN: Is that a threat to you? In other words, do they try to threaten you by saying, “We’re going to put together a new Ghostbusters, and therefore you guys will have to go do it?”

MURRAY: “It’s not a threat. It’s sort of businesslike. They’d like to keep it going. I mean, it’s still an amazing … there’s still kids today that watch this movie. They still sell a lot of toys and everything.”

I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost…

I listened to the whole interview, not just the Ghostbusters 3 stuff, and I got a few thoughts…

Murray came across as rather honest throughout the whole interview, openly addressing his alleged feuds with Chevy Chase, Lorne Michaels, and Ron Howard as well as other touchy subjects. And while there is a hint of a smile in his discussions of the Ghostbusters 3 project, there is also a very palpable sense of “I am so sick of talking about this fucking movie” to the answer he gave to Stern.

He doesn’t seem to be totally against the idea… he mentions his fondness for Ivan Reitman and for Dan Ackroyd (I did find it rather peculiar that while saying how much he loves Ackroyd he only mentions Ramis twice- once while praising him for being a funny guy and the second in a loosely laid insult referring to Ramis screwing him out of Ghostbusters residuals). But he does make it seem as though for this project to ever get off the ground, it is going to take either a very big check or an ass kissing and apology by whoever it is that Bill Murray perceives has wronged him (my guess is Harold Ramis but I am not betting real money on it).

Personally, the mere fact that by getting this dying project off the ground would once and for all end the never ending train of stories being puked out from the studios about this or that new development coming from the Ghostbusters camp, so would Murray once and for all telling the world he would rather retire than do another stupid Ghostbusters movie.

It makes all the sense in the world for this movie to be made. While the OG Ghostbusters are all getting old (and in the case of Ackroyd fatter than all fucking Hell), they are still capable of pulling off the role. The franchise, while more than twenty years old, is still wildly popular with children and even a real dogshit offering would still be expected to make Transformers money at the box office (not counting the disgusting amounts of merchandising).

But we are not talking about a person who makes sense… we are talking about Bill Murray.

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What Do You Think

Gay Marriage....

Is too important an issue for the Government to leave to the hands of the people... Should be a state's rights issue where the voice of the people will be heard... Isn't going to matter a hill of beans once the Chinese roll their tanks down the Pacific Coast Highway...